York University Bookstores and Founders College are hosting a lecture and book launch for Professor B.W. Powe of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts. The launch takes place tomorrow afternoon in the Senior Common Room, 305 Founders College, from 2:30 to 5:30pm. The event will celebrate the publication of Powe’s new book Mystic Trudeau: The Fire and the Rose.
About the book
What do we mean when we say Trudeau was a visionary? Why did Marshall McLuhan say that Trudeau’s image dominated our consciousness? Why, in spite of the spate of books, essays, and programs about Trudeau, do we really no know him yet? As Canadian writer Richard Gywn once said, "He haunts us still."
Mystic Trudeau: The Fire and the Rose takes a different view and asks instead what it was that haunted Trudeau, and the result is a study on the mysteries of his identity. Powe explores the extraordinary impact Trudeau continues to have on Canada by examining his mystical and spiritual side – which in turn raises questions about our own personal and collective mystic identities.
The author met Trudeau when Trudeau was in retirement and they would meet in Montral every few months over lunch to discuss ideas, family, books and much else. Framed by this friendship, Mystic Trudeau is the exploration of Trudeau as myth and as mythmaker and the effect this great man of Canadian history has had on our national psyche through the power of the media. Among other considerations, it examines the tension between Trudeau’s belief in both the rights of the individual and the collective; his idea of transforming Canada into the multicultural society we live in today; Trudeau’s ability to use the media and how the media used him; and the unfulfilled destiny of his Just Society, among other topics.
About the author
B. W. Powe (left) is a philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist. He is the author of a number of books including The Solitary Outlaw and Towards A Canada of Light, as well as the novel Outage; and a book of poetry The Unsaid Passing.
Powe was the program coordinator for three significant cultural symposia including Marshall McLuhan: What If He Was Right? (1997), The Trudeau Era (1998) and Living Literacies (2002), all held at York University.